Jack Eichel suffered an upper-body injury during the Dec. 11 game against the Boston Bruins. He is listed as day-to-day and will not play Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
Thea Theodore injured his knee during the Dec. 9 game against the Philadelphia Flyers. He will miss at least a few games with the injury and is listed as week-to-week.
The most serious injury of this latest bout of injuries is the one suffered by defenseman Zach Whitecloud. Like Eichel, he was injured during the game against the Bruins. He suffered a lower-body injury and had to be helped off the ice. He is listed as month-to-month and will not play for the foreseeable future.
The Vegas Golden Knights are now without Eichel, Whitecloud, Theodore, Robin Lehner, Brett Howden and Nolan Patrick. This is a serious hit to their organizational depth and will pose a serious challenge to the team and their playoff hopes.
The Golden Knights had a hot start to the season but are now 5-5-0 in their last 10 games, coming off a loss to the Boston Bruins. Luckily for them, they have a six-point cushion in the Pacific standings over second-place Seattle.
These injuries come at a bad time for the team as Eichel and Theodore were having great seasons in Vegas. Eichel scored 13 goals and 29 points in 27 games this year, while Theodore put up 22 points in 29 contests.
Right now, Vegas is being kept alive by the strong goaltending from rookie Logan Thompson and Adin Hill. To keep the Golden Knights’ place in the standings, they will need depth players Nicolas Roy, Kaedan Korczak, William Carrier and others to lessen the load.
